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OUR NATION 
AND THE WORLD 


By FRED I. KENT, Vice-President 

Bankers Trust Company 

NEW YORK 

















































An address delivered before 
the Minnesota Bankers 
Association at Minneapolis, 
June 23, 1916 




OUR NATION AND THE WORLD 


A GREAT planet rolling through space 
toward eternity suddenly became en¬ 
dowed with the spirit of man, and the brute 
forces of its nature, which had hitherto blindly 
crushed and ground each other, were gradually 
chained to the uses of this new power. This 
man had vast and unseen problems to solve 
that grew with the generations, and when they 
seemed about to overwhelm him, he would 
rise to a higher and still higher plane, and 
again and again could cast his mind over the 
ages, and rejoice in his great advancement. 
The philosophies of life were early discovered, 
but so close to nature was this primitive man 
that he must needs crush and grind himself, 
even as the elements were wont.to do, as he 
strove to purify his existence. So we may 
look back upon seething masses of struggling 
men, with the blackness of envy and hatred 
upon them, or toward periods of peace and 
contentment, which tell of the growth of 
brotherly love, and which uncover the progress 
of the world as it makes for that goal—still 
only a dream in the soul of man. 

And what of the future? Are we so blind, 
because of our personal existence, that we 
cannot see that centuries ago men taught 
peace and good will on earth with the same 
conviction, and even greater power, than is 
true today? Have we any reason whatso¬ 
ever for believing that our world of the present, 
which represents only an atom in the cosmos 
of life, is even remotely near eternal peace? 
Cannot we instead clearly see inevitable strug¬ 
gles for unknown generations between man 
and man, as destiny goes on its way? 

And what has our nation that other nations 
lack to protect it from the baser attributes 


1 


of man, while they still exist even as they 
exist today? We have helped chain those 
elements that baffled the early peoples of the 
earth and filled them with fear and consterna¬ 
tion, but we still use them to kill, and have 
called upon the lightning to take the life of 
man, because that man has himself, when free, 
done murder. 

Since the birth of this nation no period of 
two score years has passed that has not seen 
it at war, and has the time yet come when 
even the pacificist will not strike his brother 
if in anger? While struggling for ideals, we 
must not neglect facts, and wilful ignorance 
will neither save our sons from destruction 
nor our daughters from travail, if we measure 
our duties by our desires. 

The last to be discovered, our continent is 
peculiarly protected, both by the great oceans 
that separate it from the old world and by 
its peoples, which, in our own country, include 
representatives from all the nations, but so 
intermingled that no geographic line separates 
one from another, and no lust for territory 
can exist among them. Even so, our danger 
is great from both within and without, and 
thinking men shrink from contemplation of 
that which may happen, if we continue in our 
irresponsible way. 

From within, our greatest menace comes 
from the abuse of our public forum. We allow 
the dishonest and self-seeking, on the plea of 
the right to freedom of speech, to breed dis¬ 
trust, envy and hatred in the minds of the 
people. Have not those who read and listen 
the same right to demand truth as those who 
write and speak to demand free speech? It is 
because of our fear of autocracy that we have 
neglected to analyze the real meaning of 
freedom of speech, but in so doing we have 


2 


overlooked the fact that the autocracy of the 
mob is the most dangerous form of the abuse 
of the power of might. Does not freedom of 
speech actually mean the right to express one’s 
opinion based on fact, and is there, or can there 
be any justice or right, or even necessity under 
our Constitution in allowing the demagogue 
or the ignorant to use false statement on which 
to base argument for discrediting, from the 
public forum, certain of our people or our 
customs? The writer or speaker who is 
allowed by the people to express his opinions 
from the public forum should be held to as 
strict accountability in his statement of fact, 
upon which his logic is based, as is true in the 
case of the public statements of corporations 
or banks. 

The public can discover false logic, whereas 
it is only the exceptional individual who can 
check up false statements. The result is that 
good logic based on misrepresentation is in¬ 
jurious to the people, and leads them far from 
truth, and toward anarchy, and much of the 
discontent of the present day can be traced 
directly to dishonest teaching. 

Some day the public forum will not be open 
to those who abuse it, and the people will de¬ 
mand truth of those who would teach them, 
but whether it comes before a period of chaos 
has developed depends upon our willingness to 
meet the problem face to face, and then upon 
our courage to fight for that which we know 
to be right. 

We require men who would care for our 
dollars to take a charter from the state, and 
we appoint other men to examine their acts 
for the protection of the public, but he who 
would take our conscience into his keeping 
is allowed to steal our contentment at will, 
either to further his own base purposes or 


3 


because he is personally ignorant or unfit. Is 
one so much less valuable than the other? Can 
dollars buy happiness while discontent lasts? 
It would seem as though the charters might 
better be required of those who would use our 
public forum for the purpose of forming our 
public opinion; and if proper examiners were 
appointed, not to object to opinions but merely 
to check the statements of fact upon which 
they were based, it is just possible that our 
dollars would be safer, and that our people 
might get visions of real happiness. 

It is worth thinking over, and also this— 
who could be injured, and who could honestly 
object, if the people should some day awaken, 
and while according freedom of speech, de¬ 
mand truth of all who would use the public 
forum—Congressmen, legislators, politicians, 
agitators, reformers, and all who speak or 
write for the public? It sounds almost like 
the millennium, which only goes to show how 
far away we are from the control of our public 
opinion. 

We are building a fool’s paradise, and every 
class is being played against every other class 
—farmer, laborer, middleman and employer— 
to the detriment of all and the happiness of 
none. 

From the outside the menace is just as great, 
but it may be, as has happened before many 
times in history, that the external danger will 
ultimately solve the internal problem. 

Commercial power has been the dominant 
power for many centuries, and we find our¬ 
selves today fast approaching a premier posi¬ 
tion in a world of trade and commerce. The 
United States produces a trifle over one-fifth 
of the gold mined each year, and over one- 
fourth of all the silver. Its foreign trade is 


4 


second only to that of Great Britain. Growing 
70% of the world’s cotton, it supplies to other 
nations about a half billion dollars’ worth of 
the raw staple annually. From a production 
of about 60% of the world’s copper and nearly 
45% of its pig-iron, it furnishes other countries 
with over one hundred million dollars’ worth 
of copper, and two to three hundred millions 
in iron and steel and their manufactures. 
Although growing three-fourths of all the 
corn produced in the world, it exports com¬ 
paratively little, but from one-fourth of the 
world’s supply of wheat it ships great quanti¬ 
ties, and also many barrels of flour made from 
it. Over one-third of all tobacco is grown in 
this country, and a little larger proportion of 
the world’s production of coal is mined here, 
and both are exported in large amounts. 
Nearly three-fourths of the oil comes from 
the United States, and is shipped to almost 
every country on the globe, the total value of 
refined and mineral oil exported being in 
excess of one hundred million dollars. 

Other great values in exports are represented 
in shipments of meat and dairy products, 
hides and leather goods, and in miscellaneous 
manufactures. 

Our 250,000 miles of railway, a mileage 
approached by no other country in the world, 
enable us to carry these vast productions to 
our ports with speed and certainty, where the 
ships of other nations pick them up and carry 
them to foreign countries. 

If we would receive payment in gold for 
these commodities it would take many times 
the annual production of the world to settle 
the exports of a single year. In round figures, 
$350,000,000 in gold is mined outside of the 
territory of the United States each year. If 
payment were confined to gold, therefore, our 
total exports would be limited to $350,000,000 


5 


annually, provided all the gold mined in the 
rest of the world could be spared to this 
country. Such use would destroy the value 
of gold, and it would become entirely useless 
as a reserve upon which to base credit. We 
could ship only about one-eighth of our annual 
total exports, even though we received in 
payment all the gold produced in the world. 
Since under present monetary systems the 
other nations require a large proportion of 
the gold produced, our foreign trade would 
practically disappear if we depended upon 
payment in gold for our exports. 

What then is it that we receive for our ex¬ 
ports that causes the great desire to increase 
their total that is being expressed throughout 
the length and breadth of the United States 
today? What we want in return is nothing 
more or less than the goods of other nations, 
and increasing our exports enables this 
country as a whole to import from all parts of 
the world those things which are not among 
the resources of our people, or that may be 
made better or cheaper because of the dif¬ 
ferences in the temperament and customs of 
other nations, or the special developments 
peculiar to them. 

Among those things not found, or impossible 
to obtain, in the United States in sufficient 
quantities to serve the needs of our people, are 
many of the gums and roots and chemicals of 
various kinds, imports of which total nearly 
one hundred million dollars—cocoa and choco¬ 
late, for example, which are imported to the 
value of about twenty million dollars. We 
import over one hundred million dollars’ worth 
of coffee each year, and nearly twenty million 
dollars’ worth of tea. Rubber is another com¬ 
modity that cannot be produced in this coun¬ 
try, and our imports run close to one hundred 
million dollars annually. We buy from other 


6 


countries over one hundred million dollars’ 
worth of silk and its manufactures; and while 
we grow a small quantity of cane sugar in our 
Southern states, yet our imports of such sugar 
exceed one hundred million dollars. Fruits 
and nuts of the kinds that do not grow in 
the United States to any extent are imported 
in totals running close to fifty million dollars. 

Many of these articles require for their pro¬ 
duction the climate and conditions of the 
torrid zone, and come from countries either 
in that zone or near it. It might be of in¬ 
terest here to recall the home of some of these 
products. Our cocoa, for instance, comes from 
the West Indies, Santo Domingo, Brazil and 
Ecuador; coffee, from Brazil, Colombia and 
Central America; rubber, from Brazil, the 
East Indies, Mexico, Central America and the 
Straits Settlements; cane sugar, from Cuba, 
Porto Rico and the Philippines; fruits and 
nuts, from Central America and Brazil. 

Among other commodities not produced 
in this country to any considerable extent, 
we obtain tea from Japan and China; silk 
from Japan and Italy; spices from the 
Indies; fibres, such as manila, jute and sisal 
grass from the Philippines, India and Mex¬ 
ico respectively, are imported in the raw 
and manufactured state in totals averaging 
close to seventy-five million dollars annually; 
precious stones from Africa, Brazil, India, 
Colombia, Ceylon, Burmah; tin from the 
Straits Settlements and Great Britain; to¬ 
bacco from Cuba and Turkey; wool from 
New Zealand, Australia, Uruguay and Ar¬ 
gentina. 

Many of these commodities do not reach us 
directly, but are imported from the country 
of production to European countries, princi¬ 
pally Great Britain, where they are either 


7 


prepared for the market, or actually manu¬ 
factured, and then shipped to us. 

In addition to the articles mentioned are 
many others brought from countries which 
excel in their manufacture, or where their 
peoples are able, because of special conditions, 
to make them on a better basis than is possible 
with us. 

While our tourists absorb a large total from 
the credits made by our exports, the amount 
they absorb is only incidental, and in part 
actually represents imports. 

In the light of these facts it is not difficult 
to see why we desire to increase our exports, 
for it means that we are able to obtain from 
the rest of the world many things necessary 
for our comfort and convenience. It also 
represents an exchange of labor for labor, each 
being applied in its own country to the pro¬ 
duction of those things most natural to it. 

A tariff is placed upon imports for protec¬ 
tion and for revenue by many of the countries 
of the world. When for protection, it is to 
enable home labor to supply its own market; 
and in this country, to allow the laborer in a 
protected industry to obtain a wage that will 
make it possible for him to live in the manner 
of our people. 

When tariff for protection is carried to the 
extent that enables the development of an 
industry in one country to the exclusion of the 
article produced from another country where 
all the natural conditions favor its production, 
it means an economic waste, but as the density 
of population increases in the more recently 
discovered countries, necessity will gradually 
eliminate such tariffs. 


8 


When the tariff protection is required only 
because of a difference in the character of 
labor, the waste is not so evident, and in a 
country such as the United States, it has un¬ 
questionably made possible the employment 
of a great part of our people. As time goes 
on the tendency will be to lower such tariffs, 
for the great increase in the world’s trade in 
recent years, that will unquestionably receive 
a tremendous impetus after the present war 
has run its course, will gradually work to 
level world conditions. Such tariffs, however, 
will probably be legitimate for many years to 
come, if scientifically applied. 

In this connection it is interesting to note 
the “anti-dumping” plans being talked over 
in this country. 

How is Europe going to pay her debt to us 
after the war, if we will not take her goods? 
In making foreign loans we have in effect been 
loaning goods for other goods to be returned 
when opportunity makes possible, and if we 
would sell to the world, we must buy from the 
world, or the world cannot trade with us. 
In extending our commerce we must realize 
that the world’s markets are ours only so long 
as our market is theirs. It is right that we 
should work for the world’s trade with all our 
energy on the broad basis of reciprocity; but 
if we hope to build our trade through crippling 
our best customers, it is only a question of 
time when we will find that we have made a 
serious mistake. We should take great satis¬ 
faction in seeing the trade of Great Britain, 
France, Germany and other countries grow, 
and their wealth increase, for this will mean 
ability to buy from us, and will represent in¬ 
creased prosperity in every land. 

If, on the other hand, our competition is 
unfair,—if at the same time we are building 


9 


up our own trade we are trying to destroy that 
of our neighbors—our prosperity will be tem¬ 
porary and false. 

If we develop our resources and our talents 
to the uttermost, and make merit the founda¬ 
tion of our salesmanship, we will help key up 
the whole world to better and better forms of 
production. Each country will have to de¬ 
pend for its trade upon the excellence of the 
things that it is best fitted to produce, and 
we will be working toward the greatest econ¬ 
omy of production possible. This will mean 
the largest return to humanity in the con¬ 
veniences and luxuries of life, and the oppor¬ 
tunity to enjoy them. 

An attitude of money-swaggering and con¬ 
temptuous superiority can stir up only envy 
and hatred, and since our natural resources 
are very great, those less fortunate than we are 
likely, without any provocation on our part, 
to desire our fall. As man is still constituted, 
the strengthening of our commercial position 
is certain to develop friction, and if we con¬ 
tinue large in words and small in our physical 
power, we can be certain that we will meet 
with disaster. Even though we win in the end, 
if we are caught unawares, the destruction we 
must endure may exceed that of the warring 
nations of today. 

But the circuit of the earth has been made, 
and can we not fairly hope that our destiny 
may be to lead in the ways of peace and 
prosperity? A composite people having the 
multiplied experience of the ages would seem 
well fitted to arbitrate the world’s differences, 
and to show by example the power of square 
dealing. 

Let us hope that our wisdom will so grow 
that we can successfully meet the crises sure 


10 


to confront us as time goes on. Let us all 
strive to make of our nation, the last that can 
be discovered, the key to the world’s pros¬ 
perity, and the leader in all that tends to 
develop in man those things worth while—^the 
things that make for peace and happiness. 


11 



Assisting world Trade 

T his Company, situated in the heart 
of the world’s financial center, is 
daily affording active assistance to the 
world’s trade, by arranging banking 
details connected with importation and 
exportation. 

Let us help solve your foreign exchange 
problems. Telephone 8900 Rector or call 
at 16 Wall Street. 


BANKERS Trust Company 


RESOURCES, OVER $250,000,000 




























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